Mr and Mrs Three Dawg's fifth trip to southern Africa may take a little time to put up here as there are quite a few pictures to sort and upload but I will at least make a start now.

As a taster, here are a few pics and a rough map of the planned ten week route.

The route: First, ride bike from Scotland to London and put bike on plane to sunny Cape Town, one of my very favourite places. Then from SA head north to Namibia, Zambia and Tanzania. Then south to Malawi, Zimbabwe and back to SA. Luvverly!

The aged adventurers:

The aged bike (a 1997 1100GS owned for the last six or seven years):

Camping (at their age?):

Glamping!

Agony:

Ecstacy:

People:

Animals:

And stuff...

Now all I need is some time and a decent broadband connection, both of which are conspicuous by their absence. Bear with...

BEER..."I drink it when I`m happy or when I`m sad. I drink it when I`m alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. Trifle with it if I`m not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise, I never touch it - unless I`m thirsty"

BEER..."I drink it when I`m happy or when I`m sad. I drink it when I`m alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. Trifle with it if I`m not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise, I never touch it - unless I`m thirsty"

OK, so we'll just rewind to the start then. As I mentioned this is our fifth visit to Africa, the past four being much shorter trips on rental bikes- on one trip we got as far as the Caprivi and northern Botswana. We always wanted to go further north though, and to not have the stress of looking after someone else's expensive motorcycle. So after selling our business in October we were happily able to commit to shipping the GS to Cape Town in April to do just that.

The bike was pretty much ready to go- she's a reliable old bus- so after a problem free shakedown run down to Spain in October there was little to do other than get the rear shock serviced (I've got Wilbers both ends) and have a heavier spring fitted and of course give the bike a full service.

Motofreight near London Heathrow took care of crating the bike up and organising putting the bike on a plane, they even washed the thing for me. I just left it and the carnet with them and the next time I saw the bike (about ten days later) it was at Econo Trans in Paarden Eiland. Easier than renting, and if you're away for more than about four weeks, cheaper!

She'll never be this clean again.

Crating at Mototrans (highly recommended BTW.)

And that's it, ready to go. We flew BA, the bike went with Virgin.

All we had to do when we picked the bike up (Econo Trans had already uncrated it) was put the rack and a mirror back on, sign a form, collect our carnet and that was it. So easy. Again, the service we recieved was superb- talk to Adrian Schultz at Econo Trans if you need to ship something.

A little light spanner work...

And we're good to go.

As a shakedown we did a run down to Chapman's Peak, as featured in half the car commercials ever made.

I'd already planned to head up to Namibia via the Cederberg, but when I spotted Sweetie Pie's invitation to the spitbraai at the Cederberg Oasis we decided that we had to go. And we are really glad we did!